1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to the field of graphical user interfaces for web browsing and provides a novel method for constructing a browsing history. More particularly, disclosed is a method and system for cataloguing browsing activity into separate browsing threads. The method and system also provides the ability to add metadata to the browsing history.
2. Description of the Related Art
The World Wide Web (hereafter the “web” or “Internet”) has rapidly become a critical information resource for people around the world. It is estimated that there are more than 100 million web sites and over 1 billion users on the Internet today. Each of these users accesses sites using a software device known as a web browser. Some of the more popular, known browsers include Microsoft® Internet Explorer, Firefox and Safari®.
As shown in FIG. 1, while “browsing” the Internet, a user retrieves information from the web by viewing a page currently loaded in the browser and clicking on one of the displayed hyperlinks to load a new page of interest. Clicking on the hyperlink generates a request for a new web page from a web server. As shown in FIG. 2, this server responds to the request from the user and delivers a web page to the browser, which displays the web page for the user to view. The user may then browse the new page and/or choose a new link to follow to proceed to a new web page or other content. By repeating this process on each new page, the user generates a time sequence of pages browsed on the web.
In general, information searches require a user to visit many sites and sift through large amounts of content to find desired content or information that is needed. Consequently, conventional browsers always include features that enable the user to maintain a record of visited sites that the user may deem useful.
Bookmarking is one common feature that is used to provide a way to retrieve information, i.e., maintain a record of visited sites. For example, when the user wants to remember a specific site, he stores the address of the site as a “bookmark” in the browser. With the site address recorded, he can return to the site without repeating the original navigation.
After bookmarking a large number of sites, it may become difficult for the user to retrieve information from his collection of stored sites. Moreover, bookmarks are typically stored in regions called folders. The user must therefore decide how to organize saved links associated with the stored bookmarks. It is typical for a user to forget the significance of a specific stored bookmark. In addition, the user loses valuable contextual information contained in the path navigated to the site.
“Tagging” is one alternative to folders that has become popular for organizing bookmarks. A tag is a user-defined keyword (or set of keywords) that is stored with the bookmarked site. Here, the keyword is used to retrieve the saved addresses associated with the bookmarked site. Although similar to a folder system, in that the user must choose labels to associate with bookmarks, tagging is usually seen as a more convenient organizational method.
The web site Del.icio.us has helped to popularize tagging. Here users can tag sites with their own labels and store these bookmarks online for access from any computer. In addition, users can make their tagged site publicly visible, and the site can show statistics and historical information about the most frequently tagged sites.
Notwithstanding the foregoing features, the main disadvantage associated with bookmarks is their lack of context associated with a saved address. In particular, when retrieving information on a specific subject, the search can evolve as the user studies the subject. With bookmarking alone, it is impossible to keep track of the search, such as what has been tried, what has been useful or what has not been helpful. Information specific to the search criterion is especially useful if the user subsequently continues his search. Where the user is only provided with individual bookmarks as the search guide, the user, upon resuming his search, will consume significant amounts of time reproducing the previously obtained search results.
Conventional browsers record the history of the user's browsing session. FIG. 3 shows a format that is used to display the history of a user's browsing session, where a list showing the site name is depicted. The history list may also provide a depiction of a particular address visited and the time of visit to the particular address. However, a user may navigate through many sites while browsing and, thus, create an extremely long history list. A single user can often visit hundreds of sites on any given, single day. As a result, an extremely long list may be created by the history tracking feature, making it difficult for the user to subsequently retrieve relevant information from the long list of previously viewed links.
Google™ has developed an enhanced browsing history service. Here, users record their browsing history on a Google™ server after installing specialized software. The users can bookmark sites and apply tags as described above, and can add notes to any bookmarked site entry. The database provided by Google™ is searchable, while also providing certain information on trends.
Firefox is another known web browser. The most recent version of the Firefox browser, e.g., version 3.0, also provides enhanced history and bookmarking features. Here, the user can bookmark sites and apply tags as described above. The user can also add notes and generic keywords to individual sites. The history provided by Firefox is user searchable.
Firefox 3.0 also has an enhanced address bar, which permits the user to type in any tag or keyword, where the browser will display all matching sites found in the browsing history. The enhanced address bar provides a convenient way to access information in the browsing history database directly from the primary navigational control. However, the address bar feature requires the user to remember at least a portion of the desired address, tag or keyword.
Information search and retrieval is slow and the user typically does not complete a search in one session. The user may wish to stop and return later to resume browsing at the point where he decided to pause. The user may also wish to switch between independent research subjects or may simply decide to start a new search while in the middle of the current search. The previously-described features enhance the ability of the user to archive and recall useful information that is obtained while browsing the web. However, these features fail to capture information about the browsing process. The present invention assists users in overcoming these drawbacks when conducting research.